


and you'll blow us all away

by inlovewithimpossibility



Series: cerys' s8 episode codas [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Post-Episode: s08e04 Present Tense, father-daughter bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 04:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21332047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithimpossibility/pseuds/inlovewithimpossibility
Summary: Oliver desperately tries to connect with his daughter but it seems all he needed was a photograph and the memory of a woman both of them love more than anything.[Post-8x04 Oliver & Mia moment]
Relationships: Felicity Smoak & Mia Smoak, Oliver Queen & Mia Smoak, Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: cerys' s8 episode codas [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518755
Comments: 44
Kudos: 340





	and you'll blow us all away

**Author's Note:**

> I could not leave the thought of Mia and the Olicity photo alone after watching the episode this morning so here's a messily thrown together Oliver and Mia conversation about the woman they both adore.   
Kudos and comments are always greatly appreciated!

Oliver sighs as he steps back into the main room of the apartment, clothes for the trip already stuffed into a small duffle bag just inside the bedroom door.

William is already passed out in his old room, his grown body clearly too large for the twin-sized bed but sleeping nonetheless. Oliver checks in on him once more, still not quite able to wrap his head around the fact that this is real before he steps fully into the main room in pursuit of Mia.

_Mia. _

His daughter.

He still cannot believe that the grown woman he’s been dealing with for the past two days is his daughter and that she’s every bit as gorgeous as her mother and stubborn as him.

“Aren’t you headed off?”

Her voice makes him jump and he turns to see her sat cross-legged on the coffee table, something in her hands. She’s looking at him curiously, as if she’s trying to figure him out, and the way in which her head is tilted to the side is such a familiar way sends a pang through his heart.

His girl is just her mother, through and through.

“What?” He frowns as he slowly approaches. He knows that it’s silly to be scared to startle her but she’s been so skittish that he doesn’t want to ruin a chance to talk to her.

“Russia? Didn’t you say that’s where you were going?” Mia asks, looking at him with an expression that he cannot read. It’s clear that Mia is very adept at keeping her emotions to herself and his heart aches at the thought of her needing to have practice at that.

“Oh, right, I… we might as well stay and get some sleep. We’ll be more proactive when we get there if we do.” Oliver explains as he slowly sinks down into the couch. Mia tilts her head a little further, her eyebrows furrowing deeper.

“We…?” She questions and Oliver freezes, her confusion suddenly making sense to him. She really thought…?

“You really think I was going to leave you behind?” He asks and Mia swallows heavily, looking down at the carpet.

“Only got experience to go off.” She mumbles under her breath, that same heady silence settling over them as it has been all day.

Oliver resists the urge to sigh. He knows Mia has every right to be angry at him but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Her resenting him for leaving is something that he always knew was a very real possibility but he never expected to be confronted with it as abruptly as this.

“Sorry.” She mumbles again, still not looking up, and Oliver can tell that she doesn’t really mean it but she’s _trying. _He’ll take that any day.

“Hey, I get it. I’ve got a lot to make up for and I’m not going to do it in a single Monte Cristo.” He tells her, attempting to keep his tone light but his voice cracking betrays him. Mia finally looks up though so he’ll take it as a win.

“It was a good start.” She says, the starts of a smile pulling at her lips. It’s enough to make Oliver grin. It’s progress, even if it’s just a tiny step, it’s one in the right direction.

“What are you looking at?” He asks, gesturing to the large frame she’s holding in her hand. Mia bites her lip for a second and there’s a flash of childish embarrassment that is entirely too adorable before she turns it around to reveal the picture of he and Felicity from their travelling summer. “Oh.”

Oliver can’t help but smile as he takes in the image. There’s a copy of the same one in the bookcase at the cabin but from the look on Mia’s face, it seems that it didn’t stay there for very long. 

It’s odd to him, to look at that photo now and know that despite how perfect it had felt in the moment, the two of them were still so unsteady in who they were as a couple. As he looks at it now though, four more years under his belt and two children later, the clearest thing to him is how much love radiates from the two of them.

He told Felicity last year that no matter how much they changed, she would always be the love of his life and he stands by that statement now. The versions of them that he can see in that photo are so far from the people they are today but there’s one very clear link and that is their love for each other.

“Do you miss her?”

Mia’s question makes Oliver freeze. The idea that he wouldn’t miss Felicity is indescribable to him. Every single thing that’s happened over the past weeks has had him itching to reach for his phone and to call her. She’s the one he wants to talk to about everything and anything and he knows that he would give the absolute world to have the chance to see her beautiful face just one more time.

“God Mia, every day. She’s everything to me. Her and the two of you.” He tells Mia, shaking his head as the tears start to form in his eyes. Mia frowns, looking down at the picture again, and her bottom lip catches between her teeth as she thinks.

“I just…” She starts but obviously stops herself, looking up at him with a wary expression that has Oliver frowning.

“Go on.” He prompts and Mia frowns, looking at him as if she doesn’t quite know what to do.

“Are you sure?” Mia questions and Oliver forces a small smile as he nods.

“I can take it.” He reassures her and Mia gives him another wary gaze before she looks back down at the photo.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this peaceful.” Mia comments, her eyes trained on the image of her mother in front of her and there’s a wistful tone to her voice.

Her words send a pang through Oliver’s chest. He knows realistically that Felicity and Mia were never going to live a life of sunshine and rainbows tucked away happily in a cabin. It was always going to come with its ups and downs and with many of Oliver’s foes still out there, there was always a possibility of danger.

That doesn’t, however, make the reality of it any easier to face. Oliver never wants his family to suffer, if he could take on every bit of pain they ever have to endure, he would do it in a heartbeat. To know that Felicity was never at peace without him makes him feel like a failure despite the knowledge that he will never be at peace without her.

“Was she different? When you were growing up?” Oliver can’t help but ask. He doesn’t want Mia to think that he’s disinterested in her or her story but the idea that she can tell him about Felicity and he wouldn’t ask is unthinkable to him.

“As opposed to when I knew her before my conception?” Mia asks, looking at him with that same snarky expression as he’s been getting from her all day. She catches herself quicker this time, running a hand through her curls before straightening her shoulders. “Old habits.”

“It’s okay,” Oliver reassures her, taking a deep breath. He needs to tread cautiously here, he knows. Mia’s incredibly volatile. “Would you mind telling me about what she was like when you were growing up?”

He keeps his tone light and questioning and Mia watches him for a long moment before she sighs. Almost immediately though, a bright smile spreads across her face and it’s perhaps the best thing that Oliver has seen all month. Even when she’d smiled at him earlier over the Monte Cristos, it hadn’t quite reached her eyes. But this smile takes over her entire face and she just lights up. 

“Kind. Incredibly loving. Until I was seventeen there wasn’t anything I didn’t feel like I could talk to her about. It was the two of us against the world. _Mama and Mia_, she used to say when I was little.” She chuckles a little as she talks, obviously remembering something. Her voice is filled with affection, a kind he’s only heard very briefly when she’s addressed William over the past couple of days. It’s so light now and it’s obvious to see how much Mia loves her mother.

“She brought in Nyssa to train you?” Oliver questions gently, remembering what she said earlier when they were in the bunker. He expects her expression to sour but instead, it stays joyous as she nods.

“Every summer from when I was four,” Mia explains and Oliver cannot stop the way his eyebrows rise in surprise. That’s… a lot.

He knows that Felicity would want Mia to be able to defend herself but to give her fourteen years of intense training from one of the deadliest fighters in the world?

Oliver supposes you never could accuse Felicity of doing things half-assed.

“So this… being the Green Arrow… it’s not something that you chose?” He asks, looking at Mia with a frown. He never wanted his legacy thrust upon either of his children but it seems they both are heavily involved with Team Arrow in 2040. It makes him incredibly proud once he gets past the heart palpitations the idea threatens to induce.

“I have a codename of my own, thank you very much. But it was my choice, kind of. The training was just that. Mom wanted me to be able to protect myself. She never foresaw me taking on the hood. In fact, I think she hated it.” Mia shifts where she’s sat, her expression growing more serious.

“I’m sure she’s incredibly proud of you,” Oliver assures her with a frown and Mia chuckles, shaking her head as she looks at him with a soft sigh.

“Oh proud, sure. But… there was the other side to Mom too. The one that I can’t see in this picture. She looks so peaceful here in a way that she never was back home.” Her wistful tone is back as she looks down at the photo she’s still clasping. It’s almost as if she’s desperately attempting to search for the full woman she knows in the picture.

But Oliver knows she won’t find it because Felicity hadn’t grown into that woman yet.

“She was scared.” Oliver states and Mia hums, nodding her head.

“Paranoid. She was terrified of danger that was never there. I didn’t leave Bloomfield until I was eighteen. I wasn’t allowed to go to a real school. Pretty much the only people I knew were Mom, Auntie Nyssa, and Mrs. Carver who ran the grocery store.” Mia explains slowly and with her words, more and more starts to click in Oliver’s brain. If Mia’s been that sheltered, it makes sense that she would feel even more overwhelmed in a situation like this. Plus, it’s clear from what she said that her social circle has remained very small throughout her life.

“You didn’t go to school?” Oliver questions, picking up on that tidbit from Mia’s explanation. Mia huffs, giving him a look that he instantly reads as ‘that’s what you got from that?’. It’s a look he knows well from her mother. 

“I did online school. Mom filled in the gaps. It works when you have a certified genius as a mother.” Mia shrugs and Oliver chuckles, nodding his head. He supposes that it does make sense but it’s far from the normal life he wanted for his daughter.

He understands it though. Without him there, Felicity only had herself to rely on and that must have been terrifying with the life of their baby in her hands as well.

“She was always so worried, even before I left. Once when you were a baby, I forgot to tell her that I was taking you out onto the deck. I’ve never seen her so frantic. She’d torn the house apart.” Oliver recalls, looking at Mia who takes a deep breath and adjusts uncomfortably where she’s sat. It’s clear that she’s not fully happy with the turn the conversation has taken but Oliver is so glad that she hasn’t run or sworn him off.

“I was angry at her for a long time. It only got worse when I found out that she was still working as Overwatch. But I think I get it now. She was so hyperaware of her own inability to physically protect me that she did everything she could to make sure that we’d never find ourselves in that situation. Plus, I think maybe she was exercising some of the control that she couldn’t have over William on me.”

“Maybe.” Oliver nods, forcing a small smile onto his face when Mia’s wide eyes look up to meet his own. She’s so beautiful, just like her mother, and Oliver feels his heart clench in the way that it has been all day when he sees the pain within her eyes.

“She loved you with everything in her. She told me everything she could bear about you and how much of a hero you are. She was so proud of you.”

“She… god, I want to call her.” Oliver blinks, forcing back the tears as his fingers fiddle by his side.

“You won’t hear any argument from me. If there’s anyone who could fix this mess, it’s Mom.” Mia chuckles and Oliver can’t help but do the same.

“She’d whip us all into shape pretty quickly, wouldn’t she?” He smirks and Mia giggles, despite the tears that are forming in her own eyes.

“Understatement of the century.” She replies dryly and Oliver smiles, taking her in for another long moment.

“I know everyone keeps saying how much like me you are but there’s so much of her in you as well.”

“I think we look kind of alike,” Mia suggests and the reverence in her tone as she glances down at the photo in front of her is just so heartbreakingly beautiful. It’s clear to Oliver that Mia adores her mother and despite everything, that small fact makes him so unbelievably happy.

“You’re both as beautiful as each other. But it’s not just that. You have her spirit underneath all that broodiness. You fight to keep it in but I can see that you have her light.” He tells her honestly, searching her face even as she ducks her head and blushes. Mia takes a long breath, fiddling with the frame of the photo nervously before a small smile paints its way across her lips and she looks up once more.

“Even when we were at each other’s throats and I thought I hated her, there was still no one who could make me feel better than Mom. Her hugs were pretty much magic.” Mia tells him and the way her eyes drift down to the photo once more has Oliver itching to reach for his phone.

“Oh, believe me, I am fully aware of the magical capabilities of your mother’s arms.” He replies instead, smiling at the thought.

Mia, however, immediately gasps and scrunches her nose.

“Ugh Dad, gross.” She bemoans, shuddering and Oliver laughs, shaking his head. That wasn’t what he meant at all but her reaction is entirely too adorable.

“You know there’s another way that you’re fully like your mother?” He presses, looking at the way that she’s sat, curled up on top of the coffee table.

“Hmm?” Mia asks, raising an eyebrow, and Oliver smirks.

“Both of you are entirely incapable of sitting on things that are designed for sitting. The amount of times I’d come home to find her sat where you are, or on top of the counter.” He tells her with an amused shake of the head and Mia grins, shrugging her shoulders.

“It’s just comfier.” She defends herself and Oliver chuckles with another shake of his head. Felicity used to tell him the same thing.

“It’s definitely not,” Oliver smirks and Mia chuckles, shrugging her shoulders again. A far more comfortable silence settles across them for a moment and Oliver revels within it. This isn’t what he wanted, by any stretch of the imagination, but if this is what they’ve got, these moments with his kids are going to be ones he’ll treasure until he breathes his last breath.

“I suppose I should get some sleep if we’re going to Russia tomorrow. I’ve never been on a plane.” Mia finally says after a long moment, her eyes darting towards the bedroom warily and Oliver nods, giving her a soft smile.

“Go get some rest.” He tells her and she smiles gently, unfurling herself as she stands and begins to walk towards the bedroom. Watching her back, blonde curls swinging behind her, Oliver cannot stop himself from calling out. “Mia?”

“Hmm?” She questions, hair whipping over her shoulder as she spins and Oliver is once again hit by just how much she looks like her mother. It’s scarily uncanny.

“Thank you for talking to me. I really appreciate it.” He tells her softly when he manages to blink off the nostalgia and Mia smiles shyly, nodding her head.

“Maybe we can do it again some time?” She offers and Oliver feels his heart leap.

“I’d really like that.” He tells her and she takes a deep breath, nodding again.

“Night Dad.” She states softly, as calmly as if this were a normal occurrence for her, and Oliver smiles.

“Goodnight Mia.” He smiles and resists the urge to run after her when she smiles back before stepping into the bedroom and out of sight.

He wants to wrap her up in his arms, to tell her that he’ll make everything better, but she deserves far more than empty promises. She and William both do.

Plus, she’s not ready for him to hug her yet, no matter how badly Oliver wants to.

_One step at a time_, he reminds himself. He’s managed it before and he can do it again.

Sinking down onto the couch, his eyes gravitate towards the photo Mia left placed neatly on the coffee table.

“Thank you.” He whispers gently into the night air, hoping that the woman alone with a newborn in a cabin knows just how deeply he loves her and how hard he’s going to fight to give them the life that they deserve.


End file.
